By T.J. Buffenbarger
(July 23, 2024) — One of the best local races of the 2023 season takes place again this Saturday at Butler Motor Speedway when they host the Chuck Wilson Memorial and Legends Night. The event turned out to be a celebration for Wilson, a standout racer from the Toledo, Ohio area that was multiple time feature inner and track champion at the high banked 3/8-mile oval, and a gathering to reminisce about the over 60-year history of racing at Butler.
Walking into the event last year was a trip through time with a large gathering of vintage race cars and tables of photo albums with images from Butler, Jackson Motor Speedway, Manchester Speedway, and other area tracks. Seeing someone such as Hank Lower wheeling their vintage car around Butler was worth the drive from West Michigan on its own.
While roaming around the pit area and grounds I crossed paths with several drivers that have since retired from active competition that were either driving the vintage cars during exhibition laps as part of the program or just in the pit area visiting with some of the current competitors.
With a $3,100 to win top prize to thew winner, in honor of Wilson’s trademark number 31, drew a respectable field of cars in 2023 with Dairin Naida picking up his second career winged 410 sprint car feature victory and second in a row at Butler. Naida, fresh off his first Eldora experience during the Kings Royal, is expected to be in the field to attempt to keep another driver from adding their name to the Wilson Memorial winners list.
If the event follows the trend of the first edition last season, it is a fitting tribute to one of the friendliest drivers I was fortunate enough to cover during my career running TJSlideways.com. Wilson was someone I frequently sought out over the years for a local racer’s opinion on certain issues. The friendly atmosphere surrounding the event last year is something Wilson would have enjoyed himself.
Notes
• Naida mentioned above made his first Eldora Speedway appearance driving for Marc Dailey. While Naida did not make a feature event during the week, the main goal was accomplished of getting laps and experience at Eldora. Naida will turn his attention to the family owned #7N entry as the team hopes to have an engine back in time for this weekend.
• The Home Pro Roofing team with Gary Taylor behind the wheel had a promising start to the week at Eldora on Wednesday night during the opener of the Double Down Duels before the Jokers Jackpot winning a heat race until a 22nd place finish buried them in heat race for Thursday’s $100,000 to win event and eventually ended up with a 12th place finish the C-Main.
From there things did not get much better as Taylor got caught up in a pair of incidents, flipping on Friday night after getting caught in some dirty air, then Saturday while racing in the C-Main had a serious incident when Carson Macedo flipped on top of the car, causing extensive damage in a crash where Taylor was fortunate to walk away from.
Depending on repairs and drive availability, the Home Pro team is expected to participate in Friday’s Great Lakes Super Sprint event at I-96 Speedway.
• GLSS has a pair of events this week with the above-mentioned Friday program at I-96 Speedway before traveling to Ohio to Waynesfield Raceway Park on Saturday.
Jac Nickles picked up first career sprint car victory, working hard to do so racing down to the wire with Kasey Jedrzejek, another young up and coming driver who has shown a lot of promise this season, for the win during the Run for the Rabbit Friday at Limaland Motorsports Park. Nickles will look for the second win of his career at Waynesfield.
Max Stambaugh and Dustin Daggett will continue their race for all three GLSS titles as both drivers are either first or second in the two regional point standings along with the overall championship chase. Stambaugh currently leads the GLSS Overall and Michigan region points by a healthy margin, but the Ohio region has Dustin Daggett leading by 23 points over Stambaugh going into Friday’s event at Waynesfield. Daggett’s second place finish on July 5th at Limaland with Stambaugh finishing eighth in that event being the difference maker so far this season.
• Must See Racing event scheduled for Wednesday at Sandusky Speedway has been rescheduled for Friday, July 26th due to weather.